Celebrating Deaf culture and difference

29 April 2009
Words Apart, a sell-out show at BATS Theatre during this year’s New Zealand Fringe Festival, will be performed again on Friday 8 May as part of New Zealand Sign Language Week and New Zealand Deaf Short Film Festival in Wellington.

The play is built around the themes of love and hate from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Ryan, a young Deaf man, and  Jules, who is hearing, struggle to convince both the Deaf and hearing communities that their love is real –  that love is more than just words.

New Zealand Sign Language and the English language are equal and integral parts of the play, and the cast features both Deaf and hearing actors.

Darryl Alexander, who is Deaf, co-directs Words Apart with Nicola Clements and Jack O'Donnell. He also plays the role of Ryan. Cast in this role for the play’s debut at BATS Theatre, Darryl had to pull out when he got pneumonia. He is delighted to have the chance to perform in Words Apart.

Other cast members are Jules (Samantha Vause), Ben (Jared Flitcroft), Ty (Asher Smith) and Mac (Nicola Clements).

Celebrated, included and equal

The play is the brainchild of Nicola, who learned to sign as a hobby when she was studying at university. “We want to portray Deaf culture not as a disability but as a difference that can be celebrated, included and equal.”

Creating Words Apart was just as dramatic as the storyline, she says. “Working in a rehearsal room with five actors, all from different cultural backgrounds and some without knowledge of Sign Language has meant that we’ve all had to work through the barriers of different languages.”

Writing of the original production in the Capital Times, critic Lyn Freeman described it as “engrossing drama, fringe at its best”.
 
“One of the things that strikes you is how inherently dramatic sign language is, far more genuinely expressive than the empty gestures of many an actor. Here we don't have translators; the actors and their actions are all we need. 

“The story reflects prejudices, hearing vs deaf and vice versa. One of the most potent parts of the play is where the two young lovers argue, putting real and emotional barriers between them, and the silence from Ryan, who's deaf, screams at you louder than Jules' frustrated yelling. Powerful stuff.”